Terme Snovik - Kamnik D.O.O. Ljubljana

... side of the square, yelling. Right then the first group lit up a bunch of flairs and the two gangs starting running at each other, about to start a violent fight. Everyone normal person in the square just went taking off, running away as fast as they could to get out of the way. As this was going on (all within a few seconds) the SWAT guys went rushing into the center and started taking out the hoodlums with their billy clubs (those stick things police officers have ...

... its river (Ljubljanica) and a collection of pretty bridges, low houses, cozy cafés and artisan shops. Although it's the country's capital, the city is quite small, so you never have to take buses, everything is easy reachable with a short walk, and Ljubljana is a city that makes it go to walk or ride a bike. <br>Oh yeah, one complaint about the city: it's quite expensive! I thought Slovenia was a cheap country but we found that, at least in the capital ...

... of entertainment. Aside from quite a few solo street performers, we also had a run-in with a local brass band. The guys were just walking around and would periodically stop to play a song or two for gathering crowds. They ended up walking in front of us at one point and put on a little marching show. Very cool.<br><br>I went up to a trumpet player at one point and asked the name of the last song they'd played. I ...

... a campsite just out of town but on the bus route. Not feeling like a town trek we ventured to the nearby shops and bought our dinner to cook making feeble attempts to order bread and pay for the shopping at the supermarket. Prices much cheaper here than in Italy so was a welcome relief after the money haemorrhaging of Venice. We even had supplies for our lunch tomorrow so were well pleased with the outcome. The ...

The first thing I needed to do today was purchase our train tickets for the journey from Ljubljana to Prague. I already knew there were none of the cheap tickets, but I wanted to see what other options might be available. Cameron had woken up feeling terrible so wisely chose to stay at home. The rest of us rugged up and headed out into the cold - very cold this morning and walked the 300 or so meters to the station. The woman behind the ticket desk confirmed ...

... to lake Bled). The view of the lake and the mountains surrounding it was really fantastic! Lake Bohinj is much bigger than lake Bled and apart from a small village where the bus stops there is practically nothing around it (OK, there are some few buildings scattered around it but that is it). We spent about 2 hours just wandering around the lake and then took the bus back towards Bled. Lake Bled, when compared to Bohinj, looks more like a summer resort as the ...

... translating) and without the promised pre-paid voucher. (Our guide Edward used his expert negotiating skills to work out a new voucher with only a half-hour delay - the boat trip to an island with a medieval church in the middle of this beautiful, crystal clear lake was priceless in the end!) But the good news was that Slovenia in general and Ljubljana in specific was a very pleasant surprise. As soon as we crossed the boarder from Hungary, every house ...

... As Chris pointed out, it was the kind of thing you would have seen in Disneyland decades earlier. As we began to think about lunch we saw some strange men dressed in furry costumes with bells attached to their belts running through a park. With nothing better to do we followed them for a block, when they gathered outside parliament, donned some horrible looking masks and started making all sorts of noise. People filed out of the building to see what all the ...

... closer inspection they are actually a group of nightclubs and every night the bums set up outside and cook bbq's for the patrons of the club. More on that story later. The city itself is nice enough to walk around for a day or two but there isn't a whole lot to see. The highlight of the city was a night drinking in one of the local bars. I met up with a Texan girl i'd met the night before and decided to try this small bar that was selling its very own micro brew ...

... to tell you about their alpine lakes and mountains, their cultural ties with Austria and Italy and about their incredible growth since gaining independence from Yugoslavia ten years ago. It is a perfect time to visit Slovenia. Tourism is developed but not intrusive, you can eat a three course meal and not sweat over the price and the Slovenian´s enthusiasm is contagious. We journeyed around this small country which offered so much variety it lived up to its tag as a ...